


don't be afraid to fight for something

by romanreigning



Series: indifference and dissent [2]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: 1981 Springbok tour, Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst, F/M, Historical Inaccuracy, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, No Happy Endings Ever, Racism, Sami and Kevin are brothers, Sibling Rivalry, again ambreigns if you squint, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7903579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanreigning/pseuds/romanreigning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in the aftermath everyone is reminded of just how much they have to be willing to give up for their cause, some more than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	don't be afraid to fight for something

**Author's Note:**

> here's that "lol just kidding everyone's actually pretty fucked up by all of this" sequel i mentioned.

"Dan!"

The equally roughed-up looking man turns to face them as they come jogging up, a look of relief on his face.

"Dear God," he exclaims, "I thought you'd been arrested. You didn't go back to the house so I went looking for you."

"We didn't know we had to go back to the house," Roman chuckles sheepishly. "We just, kinda ran."

"Well you got lucky then. Fights and all sorts of chaos broke out near the grounds. Seeing you now, I'd say Seth got the worst of it. C'mon let's get back before anything else happens," he says before starting to walk in the direction he'd come from, Dean and Roman following.

"How bad is he? How is everyone else?" Dean asks.

"Brie says Seth's got a concussion, uh, Jimmy and Jey just have bruises and scrapes from fighting people, Sami got a nice one to the eye, Becky sprained her ankle and I'm just a little sore from being shoved a lot. You?"

"Got punched in the face twice," Roman says, the proof on his face in the form of a blackening left eye.

"A beer bottle hit my back but I don't think it really did anything," Dean admits.

"Lucky we didn't get anything worse. Seth'll be alright?"

Daniel nods.

"Aye!" a voice behind them yells. They all turn to see a man staggering towards them, fight-ruffled and drunk. "You the fuckers that got the game off?" he slurs, voice laced with a faint Australian accent.

"Yeah. What of it?" Daniel replies instantly, scowling.

The man goes to say something in response, probably something stupid, when he makes eyes contact with Dean.

"Aye, you're Jonathan's boy aren't ya?" he says, almost smirking. Dean tenses but doesn't answer.

"He know you're one of the protester cunts? Does he know you stopped the game?" the man continues.

"Dean . . ." Roman warns, tugging on his sleeve to try and pull him away from the man when he sees him metaphorically raise his hackles.

"No," is all Dean says, but the word is edged and hard.

"Damnnnn, he's gonna give ya a hellova beatin' when he finds out," the man laughs, and Dean face reddens in anger and his heart pounds in a little fear, because suddenly he can feel Roman's and Daniel's eyes on him.

"Well he isn't going to find out," Dean says, voice edged with threat and his fists beginning to clench by his sides.

The man just smiles, this absolute shit-eating smile and says everything it needs to without him saying a word. It only takes one second for memories to flash and for the panic to peak within Dean and then he's striking, everything seeming to go in slow motion as he hits the man right on his nose.

"Dean!" Daniel and Roman yell simultaneously, pulling him back as he continues to try and get at the man, taking an arm each and refusing to let go until Dean stills, breathing heavily.

The man is sitting on the ground, hand covering his nose as blood trickles down his arms and he glares coldly up at Dean.

"Oh, you're definitely gettin' it now boy," he says, before standing up and storming off, muttering curses under his breath.

His friends slowly let go of him and he doesn't even say a word, he just starts walking again, head down and hands in the pockets of his jacket.

* * *

The moment they walk in the door Brie is jumping on Daniel in relief that nothing happened to him. Everyone is gathered in the living room of Brie's parents place, a house that had been their hangout spot even before all of this started.

Dean walks past everyone and heads straight to one of the empty bedrooms, closing the door behind him and sinking down to the ground against the door, trying to control his breathing.

He tightly grips of hair of his fringe and closes his eyes.

All of the previous happiness is gone. Now he just wants to hide under a bed and wait everything out.

He can't go home. No. He doesn't want to see his dad.

* * *

"You shoulda seen him Uce! He had blood pouring outta this huge gash on his cheek and-"

"Maybe another time, Jimmy," Roman warns, noticing the disgusted look on Brie's face.

"Whatever man. We may be banged up but we did worse to them than anyone did to us," Jey adds, crossing his arms and kicking his feet up on the coffee table.

"I'm sure you did."

"You alright?" Becky asks, noticing the unusually blank look on Roman's face.

Roman sighs. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." It isn't a lie, he is pretty tired. But it isn't what's on his mind.

"Maybe you should sleep," Sami suggests.

"Think I will." Without saying anything else he stands up from the couch and makes his way to the hallway where the bedrooms were. It's late enough to have an early night, but again, it isn't what's on his mind when he goes to open one of the doors and it doesn't budge, like there's something blocking it.

He doesn't say anything and just keeps putting pressure on it, until finally the thing, or rather, person blocking the door moves.

He steps inside and it's dark but he doesn't turn the light on. He just sits down on the floor beside Dean and sighs.

"Some day, huh?" Dean tries to joke, but Roman doesn't laugh.

They sit in silence for a while until Roman speaks up.

"You don't have to tell me anything, but just remember everything I've ever promised to you will always stand."

There's silence in response for half a minute before Dean sighs and lets out a weak "yeah, I know," and suddenly he's letting his head lull over onto Roman's shoulder, probably mentally exhausted from all the nerves and adrenaline he was usually unaffected by. 

Roman almost feels bad. 

Dean is currently living with his father, a man who is so pro-tour it's unbelievable. He simply just wants to watch rugby, Roman guesses, but he's also racist and fairly sexist. He isn't a good man. Dean keeps telling how growing up with him seems like a literal nightmare compared to other kid's upbringings. 

He was never hurtful to Dean physically (not to Roman's knowledge, as he remembers the man at the park's words from earlier) but he was just so mean to everyone and doesn't even know Dean is friends with Roman because if he ever finds out he'd probably make Dean's life a living hell for hanging with a 'brown bastard'.

It makes Roman tense with anger just thinking about it but before he can get even more worked up about there's a loud crashing noise from the living room and both he and Dean jump, listening in shock as yelling from various people fill their ears.

They both scramble up and rush into the room, a dramatic scene greeting them.

A solidly built man with brown hair has Sami pinned to one of the walls, screaming abuse in his face as Daniel and Becky are trying to pull him away.

"That's Sami's brother, Kevin," Dean comments almost to himself, before rushing over to help, Roman starting to follow but redirecting his path when more people appear at the doorway, his cousins joining him. 

Together they get in the intruders faces, _we don't even know who they are_ Roman thinks to himself, but threats are snarled and fists are raised, because neither them or the intruders want to back down. Behind them the others have managed the pry Kevin off of his brother.

"You fucking idiot," Kevin spits at Sami. "All of you are goddamn disgraces," he then adds, glaring at everyone else. Dean goes to confront him for that but Daniel manages to stop him.

"Just wanna fight the goddamn police," one of the other intruders accuses, prompting Jimmy to shove him angrily and mutter an obscenity. 

"No, we don't want to fight the police, we just want to stop the tour. It's-"

"Oh boo who," Kevin cuts Daniel off rudely, pretending to rub his eyes. "The whittle tour is racist because some black people in Africa are repressed, what a pity."

Everyone in the room has to collectively contain their urge to punch Kevin in the face.

"Just leave us alone Kevin," comes Sami's quiet voice, from somewhere behind Dean and Daniel.

"Aw my poor baby brother had too much? Do you need a nap? Are you gonna cry?" Kevin continues to mock, laughing. 

Daniel has obviously had it up to here with all of it and he steps up to Kevin, glaring up at him.

"Leave." 

It's definitely a sight to see because by assumptions, Kevin could probably sit on Daniel and he wouldn't be able to get up, or punch him out with one strike, but despite all of the weird hippie shit Daniel's into, everyone's seen him fight. He's not to be messed with.

Kevin scoffs but complies anyway, and the other intruders go with him, leaving the rest of them reasonably unsettled. 

But their attention immediately shifts back to Sami who looks like he's holding back tears, and when he notices everyone looking at him, he mumbles something about being tired and disappears from the room. No one goes after him, at least not right now.

"That's pretty rough," Becky mutters quietly.

"They used to be so close when they were younger," Daniel adds, before sighing loudly and sitting down on the couch, resting his face in his hands. Brie comes over and sits by him. 

There's silence between all of them for a while before Becky leaves to go home and then so does Jimmy and Jey. Seth wakes up as well but doesn't move from his spot on one of the couches, instead opting to just fall back asleep as Roman thinks about Sami and Kevin and Dean wonders if he should ever go back home or not.

"Well uh, we should get some sleep. You guys good?" Daniel eventually says, standing up from the couch with Brie.

"We're good," Roman says, and wishes them good night. 

"I'm-" Dean starts, hesitating. "I'm gonna . . . head home."

"Okay," Roman says, reply casual, but the way he looks at Dean says he knows that Dean's nervous somehow, and it's like he wants to say something, but he doesn't, because it's Dean Ambrose we're talking about. He could get the whole damn world to its knees if he tried.

But then Dean hugs him and it catches him off-guard, a little surprised by such an open display of affection. 

"You good?" he asks, and he knows he shouldn't, because he'll never get the answer Dean will want to tell him, even on a day like this.

"Yeah it's just-" Dean breathes, pulling away. "Just been a long day." And then he smiles slightly, but it doesn't reach his eyes. And then Dean turns to leave and he's gone, leaving Roman more worried than ever.

With no reason to stay up he gets off the couch and begins to head to the rooms, but changes his mind and beelines for the back door, closing it behind him as he steps out and leans against the deck railing, over looking the suburbs of Hamilton, but instead he looks up, at the stars.

 _Nothing's ever going to be the same after this is all over,_ he muses absent-mindedly to himself, letting out a huge breath, thinking about Dean.

In one of the rooms Sami lays on the bed, not even in the covers as he stares incessantly at the ceiling, thinking about life before him and Kevin started fighting.

A little distance away Dean is walking alone in the night, head down and hands in his pockets.

**Author's Note:**

> the next story (if i write it) will be dean going home and maybe the molesworth street protest. also i passed my exam on this, just barely.


End file.
